The building by human labor with the misused earth is simply to build up a manmade, godless life. The city built at Babel could grow nothing. It was godless and lifeless. Look at human culture, at society, and at the situation throughout the world. What are the people doing? They are burning the earth into bricks in order to build up a city that is without God and without life. This is today's society. Every society is a Babel. Today's society is built up with bricks made by men who burn the element that grows life out of the earth created by God. Every organization in today's society is burning the earth into bricks and building up a Babel that is godless and lifeless.
Have you ever seen a society that is not doing this? If you have seen such a thing, it must be the church. The church does not burn the earth; the church plows the earth and sows seed into it. The church is not building up a lifeless and godless city; it is building up a city that is godly and full of life. The building in the church is with precious stones, not with bricks that come out of burning the earth. Not only in secular society but even to some degree in so-called Christian society, in Christianity, people are burning the earth into bricks. They are burning to death the element that grows life in order to build up a city that is godless and lifeless. I hope that everyone in the church will see the difference between the church and any type of society. The church is unique in that it does not burn the earth. The church plows the earth, sows seed into it, and waters it. That life seed, which is Christ, will grow and produce materials for the building up of God's holy city. This is what the church is doing here. However, every other society, including many of the so-called Christian groups, are burning the element that grows life for the purpose of building up a city that is godless and lifeless. But here in the church life we are not burning the earth; we are watering it. We are doing the work of planting and growing. We are plowing, sowing, watering, and growing; we are not burning or killing. We do have a building, the building of God, but it is not built with man-made bricks or by human labor; it is built with God-created and transformed stones and by the divine work.
When I was young I did not understand why those people at Babel built a tower as well as a city. What was the purpose of the tower? If you read this portion of the holy Word, you will find that the tower was a declaration made to the whole universe, especially to God, that man had become independent of God and everyone else.
The principle of a city with a tower is the same in human society today. A tower signifies advertisement. Even in Christian work there may be the building of a tower for advertisement. A certain Dr. So-and-So may be advertised as a world-famous preacher. That advertisement is a tower. In such a case, Jesus Christ would not have as great a name as Dr. So-and-So, the world-famous preacher. People go to hear him, not Christ. Big signs, extensive advertisements—these are the building of a tower.
Babel is the source of Babylon, for Babylon is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Babel. Eventually, we not only have Babel in Genesis 11 but Babylon in Revelation 17. The Babylon found in Revelation 17 is today's Christendom. Many leaders in today's Christianity know that Babylon in Revelation 17 is Christendom. Nevertheless, they continue building their own Babylon. Not only do they remain in Babylon, they are building it. They want to build their towers as high as possible.
One day as I was considering this kind of situation, the Lord showed me that the city of Babel is like a tomb and that the tower is like a tombstone. If a tomb does not have a tombstone, it will be incomplete. When people erect a sign for advertisement, they should realize that it is a tombstone, a mark of the dead.